Bracks makes Greens, and husbands, jealous

The Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks, is singlehandedly reversing what has become the natural law of Green politics.

According to extremely detailed union polling in five marginal seats, the main reason for this development is the Premier's sex appeal for women.

They like him so much that enough of them have changed their votes to put the male Green vote ahead of the female's by about 2 per cent.

This is at odds with the party's traditional gender lines - normally the Greens can rely on attracting a higher percentage of women than men.

Mr Bracks has helped his own image by pushing out some environmentally friendly policies, such as ending logging by 2008 in the Otway ranges in Western Victoria.");document.write("

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But while this has ensured an overwhelming majority of Green preferences will flow to Labor, it also seems to have made the Premier even more appealing to women with a greenish tinge.

Labor, meanwhile, is delighted with the overall popularity of its leader's personality and appearance with many party members privately referring to the significance of the sexy X-factor of a good-looking man.

The impact this has had on many women who would otherwise be likely to vote Green is a remarkable turnaround.

Men like him too, of course, but just not as much.

The Greens' electoral analyst, Stephen Luntz, said he would be surprised if the traditionally higher percentage of women supporters was overturned tomorrow but said he could not rule it out. Greens have not done any polling themselves since the campaign started.

According to Mr Luntz, the pattern across all states and nationally over the past several years is that about 55-60 per cent of the Green vote comes from women. Public polling has shown the party in Victoria attracts between a low of seven and a high of 12 per cent statewide, with Mr Luntz estimating it to be around 9 per cent.

The Greens are still confident of winning one or two inner Melbourne seats.